“Drag the body out and burn it. Tell the cook to wait in the kitchen; I’ll eat later. Have someone prepare a room; I’ll rest there later.”
Li Miao said to An Wenjie.
“Yes!”
An Wenjie puffed out his chest and stomach, responding with full vigor, and subtly winked at An Ziyang.
An Ziyang secretly shook his head, squeezed his eyes, and gestured a few times with his hands below.
An Wenjie instantly understood, gasped, and scurried out of the secret room to oversee Li Miao’s orders.
Only An Ziyang and Li Miao remained in the secret room.
An Ziyang didn’t hesitate at all, smiling fawningly at Li Miao and saying, “Master, just say the word if you need anything.”
“Murder, arson, swindling—I can do it all. I’ll gladly serve as your accomplice.”
Li Miao’s grand struggle with that Yong Nu above, and his mysterious methods of healing their father and son while chatting just now, had made An Ziyang thoroughly understand that he had no room for resistance in front of Li Miao. His expression became even more fawning.
Li Miao sneered.
“Being an accomplice to a tiger is not a good thing to say.”
“If you want to play dumb, you need to pick your audience. All these Ming Cult brats died by your hand; playing dumb with me now will only make me think you’re taking me for a fool.”
An Ziyang, however, looked shocked. Then, his eyes welled up, and a few tears actually flowed down his cheeks, as if he had suffered an immense grievance.
“Master, these words are all from my heart!”
“If you don’t believe me, I—”
“Shut up.”
Li Miao said indifferently.
If he really believed An Ziyang had submitted to him, then his twenty years as a Jinyiwei (Imperial Guards) would have been in vain.
This kid looks slick, but he’s actually very tough deep down. With people like him, one’s attitude cannot be too good, or he’ll climb right up the pole.
To be fair, Zhu Zai probably thought the same of Li Miao.
An Ziyang mumbled and closed his mouth, his eyeballs darting around.
Li Miao looked left and right, then said.
“Your family’s secret passage is quite large. It extends in all directions, almost hollowing out the ground beneath the residence.”
An Ziyang said with a fawning smile.
“The martial world is dangerous; it’s just a backup plan. Our father and son aren’t very capable, so we can only think more about hiding and escaping.”
Li Miao waved his hand: “In your secret passage, there should be rooms for you father and son to hide in when it’s inconvenient to go out, right?”
“There are three.”
“First, take me to the nearest one to take a look.”
“Alright.”
An Ziyang led Li Miao into a secret passage, turning left and right, walking for the time it takes to drink a cup of tea before stopping at one spot.
He first squatted down and lifted a stone slab, reaching in to twist something, and then heard the sound of a bowstring loosening from within. Only then did he stand up, feel for an inconspicuous protrusion on the wall, and press it.
Rumble—
The wall rotated, revealing a secret room.
“Master, this is it.”
Li Miao nodded, looked inside, and then sniffed the air, shaking his head.
“To the next one.”
“Alright.”
An Ziyang roughly guessed Li Miao’s meaning and said nothing more. The two then went to the second secret room, and Li Miao still shook his head after looking inside.
The two then walked towards the third secret room.
However, they were still two turns away when Li Miao said indifferently: “This is it.”
“Your martial arts are too poor; wait for me here.”
With that, he left An Ziyang and walked on his own to a wall.
An Ziyang seemed to suddenly remember something and shouted: “Master, I haven’t told you where the mechanism is or how to open it!”
“No need.”
Li Miao raised his hand and struck the wall with a palm, his true qi penetrating the wall and directly damaging the internal springs. He then easily pushed it open.
As soon as it opened, a sweet, cloying fragrance wafted out.
Li Miao savored it, first smiling, and then, for the first time, seriously circulated his internal energy through a full cycle.
This fragrance was poisonous. It was more than ten times more potent than Tang Sect’s pill poison. Li Miao could resist Gu poison head-on, but if he truly underestimated this fragrance, he would undoubtedly suffer a hidden loss.
However, the concentration of this fragrance... it didn’t seem like intentionally released poison, but rather like a woman’s body scent, naturally diffused into the air after living there for a period of time. This secret room wasn’t well-ventilated, so it accumulated until Li Miao opened the door and it all rushed out at once.
Li Miao stepped inside.
This secret room was well-arranged and spacious. A desk was placed in the center, and the four corners were piled with miscellaneous items: hidden weapons, bladed weapons, silver, various types of clothing, etc., which should have been preparations made by the An family father and son for their escape.
Most prominent was a clothes rack placed furthest out, on which hung a set of loose male clothing, black robes with gold trim, not of Central Plains style.
And at the very top of the clothes rack hung a bronze mask, with a note attached to it.
Li Miao stepped forward, took down the note, and examined it carefully. The handwriting was delicate and contained the following content:
“‘Ji Tianrui’ presented to Lord Li. If Lord Li is willing to be lenient, this item can facilitate Lord Li’s mission.”
Li Miao sniffed; the fragrance on these clothes was exceptionally strong, as if they had only just been taken off.
Li Miao smiled and put down the mask.
Against the wall directly opposite the door was a luohan bed, its bedding still scattered on the bed.
Li Miao walked to the bed, lifted the bedding, and couldn’t help but exclaim “Hmph!”
He had truly never seen such a messy bed.
Underneath the bedding was a dense pile of food, some eaten, some uneaten, along with a few pens and a few mismatched pairs of socks.
Li Miao hooked his foot under the bed and pulled out a pair of embroidered shoes, also askew, their heels completely flattened from being stepped on.
This was quite different from what he had expected.
Li Miao smiled silently, dropped the bedding, and returned to the desk.
On the desk, besides writing brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones, the upper left corner also held a stack of written rough paper, seemingly just used by someone for practicing calligraphy.
Li Miao casually pulled out a stack and flipped through it.
“Kill. Live.”
“Great Shuo. Zhu family.”
“Emperor, Heavenly Human.”
“Ming Cult, founding of the nation.”
It was all such disjointed, logically scattered words.
Li Miao, however, vaguely sensed the connection between these words. After confiding in Zhu Zai, he had been thinking about these matters. These few words subtly helped Li Miao connect a vague thread.
He smiled silently and turned to the last page.
“Those not of our race are sure to have different hearts.”
The eight characters were written with forceful strokes, as if the writer had penned them involuntarily amidst fluctuating emotions.
Li Miao sighed.
“This matches up.”
“No wonder the imperial court insists on Ji Tianrui’s death.”
“Ji Tianrui, Ji Tianrui… should I call you Ji Pu Tianrui, Ji Pu Tianrui?”
“Or should I call you… Ge Pu Tianrui, Ge Pu Tianrui?”
Why did the Miao people collude with the Ming Cult, why did the imperial court insist on Ji Tianrui’s death, and how could Ji Tianrui bridge the distinct fields of Gu arts and martial arts? Where did the Ming Cult’s Jia Yi Divine Skill come from, and why were Gu Soldiers of the same origin as the Miao people’s Gu beasts?
The answer lies in the surname “Ji.”
“Ji” as a surname has few lineages in Great Shuo. The ancient texts Yin Minjun consulted listed a total of four origins.
Leaving aside the other three, let’s just consider the last one—the Ji Pu of the State of Wei during the Spring and Autumn period, which belonged to a surname derived from a place name.
Legend has it that during the Spring and Autumn period, the State of Wei had a royal Ji Pu, which was a royal aristocratic field used for planting fruit trees and vegetables, or a garden for raising exotic flowers, rare herbs, and rare birds and beasts. The officials and servants who managed the Ji Pu were called Ji Pu Shi, Ji Tian Shi, etc.
Among the descendants of the Ji Pu Shi and Ji Tian Shi, many later simplified their surnames to the single surnames Ji and Tian, which have been passed down through generations to this day.
Therefore, the surname Ji can also be said to be Ji Pu.
Ji Pu Tianrui is an alias, meant to conceal her origin.
Her original name should be “Ge Pu,” which has a similar pronunciation. Li Miao had encountered this surname in Qi-Lu Pingshan Garrison.
The Ge Pu Shi is one of the Twelve Sect Branches of the Miao people.